This weekend Angela and I (and most of the people I know and most of the people in North America) went to see "The Hunger Games". We'd bought our tickets several weeks ago, chosen prime seats (back row, middle - which is rare for us because we usually do end) and decided to spend a few extra bucks to see the movie on IMAX.
It was worth it. The theater was full on Saturday morning at 9:30 and you could hear a pin drop in the place. No cell phone screens lighting up the audience, no whispers, etc. (a few people got up to go to the bathroom periodically - seriously, why buy a $10 extra-large Coke at the movies?!?!?!). It was a great viewing experience, and one we'd been looking forward to. And it got me thinking...
Books and movies and television and outside entertainment has become such an integral part of our lives that we carry it with us (see the iPhone 4s I purchased this weekend as exhibit number one). And granted, my vision is probably very skewed because of the amount of my days I spend writing screenplays but I still wonder, what did people look forward to 100 years ago. Or even 50 years ago. I mean, in our house we've already anticipating the final Twilight movie that will come out in November. So...
Are our priorities messed up? Or are times just different? Has television replaced the radio or even community gatherings of song? I don't know. I just know it's been weighing on my mind lately.
I miss the people in my life. In Los Angeles I often feel so far removed from everyone and everything that at times I feel like I'm living my life via electronics and postal system. Instead of birthday hugs I send messages and maybe a card. Instead of long dinner conversations, I watch yet another television show to determine if it's the right show for me to write. I'm not depressed, I'm just starting to think, to wonder, what's next. Is it here? Is it there? I don't know.
I love movies and books and television shows because they take me, even if only for a short while, to another place. I can't imagine life without these comforts or indulgences. And yet...I wonder...
Monday, March 26, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Happy Birthday, Elaine!
Elaine has been my other grandmother for as long as I've been alive. Related to my family on my mom's side, my grandpa's cousin technically, we've been family forever. We've celebrated vacations and holidays and weddings and deaths. And to me, Elaine has been more than she may ever realize.
Since I moved to California, even to Arizona before that, I've realized how important it is to keep the people I cherish close whether it's through a letter, a card, a visit or a quick call. And ever since my grandma died last April, it's become even clearer to me that life goes by so quickly, too quickly, and that we will never have enough time to spend with the people we love. Our people.
I am so thankful for Elaine in my life, for her sharing her family and herself with us Yankees all these years (Elaine is of the Canadian relative-side). I'm thankful for her unconditional love and caring, for her soft voice and her big hugs. I'm thankful that I've got her to dote on now that grandma is gone.
So happy birthday, Elaine! I'm glad you got cake today and I can't wait to take you to lunch this summer!
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Ten on Tuesday
Ten things I am thankful for today…
1.
Funny and interesting podcasts that keep me
engaged while I work.
2.
That Angela has found an acupuncturist who can
help her manage her migraines, and who’s become an amazing friend to both of
us.
3.
“Get Fuzzy” collections that make me laugh and
laugh and laugh. Reading a few pages always puts a smile on my face.
4.
That I have a job and Angela has a job, even
though they aren’t the ones we want, because 9500 more LAUSD employees are
getting laid off this month.
5.
My Growth Group (aka Bible study group) at
church. We’ve been studying the book of Romans for months now and we’re still
going strong and we keep finding little tangents to go off on (this week was
what exactly is the Holy Spirit). I love those 85 minutes each Sunday morning.
6.
My writers’ group who are really excited about
my new baseball pilot. They’re excitement and questions keep me seated at my
desk when I so don’t want to be here.
7.
People who go out and do things to make their lives
happen. My friend Margy self-published her first novel this past month and that
is so inspiring.
8.
Daylight Savings Time. I’m probably the only one
who loves the jumping forward and losing an hour because I love love love that
it’s light past five o’clock at night. It feels like I got the coolest gift of
time!
9.
The 13 people who’ve contributed to the Revlon5K I’m walking to kick cancer’s butt. I’ve raised $505 dollars so far and it’s
still almost two months away!
10. Wool
socks. Yep, even in Los Angeles my feet get chilly.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
An early round (i.e., the rough life in Los Angeles)
Another first in California: actually playing golf, not just hitting golf balls!
Yep, that's right, this morning I got up before the sun and found my way to Rancho golf course down on Pico Boulevard, before 6 a.m., which is pretty darn early. And although I was anxious about the whole adventure, it turned out very very well. But let me back up...
When Angela and I went to hit golf balls with Susan she suggested I might like to play a round of golf with her husband some Saturday morning. I smiled and nodded, thinking I really would not like to do that at all. It's not that her husband didn't seem like a very nice man or that I didn't want to actually play golf with my own golf clubs for the first time in four years, it's just that I get really nervous when I'm playing golf with anyone who isn't related to me (i.e., my dad, my mom or Angela). And I've been that way since...well, since high school.
See in high school I played on the golf team, earning my Varsity letter freshman year, and wound up as co-captain by my junior year. And while it was great fun and I have tons of good memories and stories to share, even got my picture and name in the paper a bunch of times, it was an agonizing experience in many ways. Basically, I figured out that the stress of competitive sports just wasn't for me. Especially competitive high school GIRL sports. (Newsflash - girls can be mean, and their parents, sometimes just as mean, and coaches, sometimes meaner.) So for a while, I put away the golf clubs. And then, when I decided to go away to college my junior year, I got out the name of the college coach who'd tried to recruit me my senior year. And off I went to play golf for Olivet College which was really a whole other experience, a much much more positive one. And just like that, my love of golf came back.
But golf is an expensive sport and one that requires large blocks of free time and in California, Angela and I just never got around to it. Sure I play constantly every summer in Michigan but today was different. Today I was going out to play with two people, two older men, I didn't know from Adam. And although I debated it heavily, worried obsessively, and barely slept last night, off I went this morning. But why such the big rigamarole, you might ask? Well, this wasn't just a game of golf. This was also a networking opportunity. See, my manager, AKA Angela, is always trying to get my name out there, and I so appreciate that. So she told her co-worker what I do, and what I am trying to do, here in Hollywood and bam!, all of a sudden they decided I just had to play golf with these two men, the husband and his friend, who works in The Business.
And really, how could I turn that down? Networking has been my number one goal this year, trying to get a script sold, trying to get a job, trying to meet people who can help me with my career. And this week I've been on a roll. I had lunch with a friend who helped connect me with some people and I talked to another friend about a meeting. So now back to the golf game. I had to go...and yet...
So I went. To my networking golf game at six o'clock in the morning. And it went fine. I always dread that first tee shot. If only it goes well, then the rest of the round can be so-so, I pray. If only I don't whiff the ball. If only, if only, if only...And guess what? I did not whiff the ball! It was a good, not great, first shot. And it got better, then a little worse, then great, then okay, and just like the gentlemen I was playing with, I had a pretty good round of golf.
We played nine holes, the back nine at Rancho, and the two plus hours went quickly and were a lot of fun. It was a great walk, a good workout to carry my clubs which I haven't done in years, and I laughed a lot and overall, just enjoyed the beautiful day. And they were very nice to me, the girl they really didn't know, who did not 'just miss the LPGA tour' as they might have heard. We played from the white tees, we took a couple of mulligans for fun, and on the 18th hole, the guys made me go to the brick bench and read the plaque dedicated to Arnold Palmer.
Apparently, back in 1961 when Arnold Palmer played the L.A. Open at Rancho, he shot a 12 on the 18th hole which is a par five. So they decided that today, we should play from the black tees for just this hole. And off we went! It was a long hole, with out of bounds on the left and the driving range on the right (and balls kept coming through the mesh fence, a lot of them!) and I managed to get in my only sandtrap of the day but by the end, I was pretty happy that we all shot only two over on the hole!
Afterwards, I gave each of the guys one of my cards, and told them to keep me in mind for future foursomes, and off I went. Living through, and enjoying, my first official California round of golf, and my first official networking meeting on the course!
Yep, that's right, this morning I got up before the sun and found my way to Rancho golf course down on Pico Boulevard, before 6 a.m., which is pretty darn early. And although I was anxious about the whole adventure, it turned out very very well. But let me back up...
When Angela and I went to hit golf balls with Susan she suggested I might like to play a round of golf with her husband some Saturday morning. I smiled and nodded, thinking I really would not like to do that at all. It's not that her husband didn't seem like a very nice man or that I didn't want to actually play golf with my own golf clubs for the first time in four years, it's just that I get really nervous when I'm playing golf with anyone who isn't related to me (i.e., my dad, my mom or Angela). And I've been that way since...well, since high school.
See in high school I played on the golf team, earning my Varsity letter freshman year, and wound up as co-captain by my junior year. And while it was great fun and I have tons of good memories and stories to share, even got my picture and name in the paper a bunch of times, it was an agonizing experience in many ways. Basically, I figured out that the stress of competitive sports just wasn't for me. Especially competitive high school GIRL sports. (Newsflash - girls can be mean, and their parents, sometimes just as mean, and coaches, sometimes meaner.) So for a while, I put away the golf clubs. And then, when I decided to go away to college my junior year, I got out the name of the college coach who'd tried to recruit me my senior year. And off I went to play golf for Olivet College which was really a whole other experience, a much much more positive one. And just like that, my love of golf came back.
But golf is an expensive sport and one that requires large blocks of free time and in California, Angela and I just never got around to it. Sure I play constantly every summer in Michigan but today was different. Today I was going out to play with two people, two older men, I didn't know from Adam. And although I debated it heavily, worried obsessively, and barely slept last night, off I went this morning. But why such the big rigamarole, you might ask? Well, this wasn't just a game of golf. This was also a networking opportunity. See, my manager, AKA Angela, is always trying to get my name out there, and I so appreciate that. So she told her co-worker what I do, and what I am trying to do, here in Hollywood and bam!, all of a sudden they decided I just had to play golf with these two men, the husband and his friend, who works in The Business.
And really, how could I turn that down? Networking has been my number one goal this year, trying to get a script sold, trying to get a job, trying to meet people who can help me with my career. And this week I've been on a roll. I had lunch with a friend who helped connect me with some people and I talked to another friend about a meeting. So now back to the golf game. I had to go...and yet...
So I went. To my networking golf game at six o'clock in the morning. And it went fine. I always dread that first tee shot. If only it goes well, then the rest of the round can be so-so, I pray. If only I don't whiff the ball. If only, if only, if only...And guess what? I did not whiff the ball! It was a good, not great, first shot. And it got better, then a little worse, then great, then okay, and just like the gentlemen I was playing with, I had a pretty good round of golf.
We played nine holes, the back nine at Rancho, and the two plus hours went quickly and were a lot of fun. It was a great walk, a good workout to carry my clubs which I haven't done in years, and I laughed a lot and overall, just enjoyed the beautiful day. And they were very nice to me, the girl they really didn't know, who did not 'just miss the LPGA tour' as they might have heard. We played from the white tees, we took a couple of mulligans for fun, and on the 18th hole, the guys made me go to the brick bench and read the plaque dedicated to Arnold Palmer.
Apparently, back in 1961 when Arnold Palmer played the L.A. Open at Rancho, he shot a 12 on the 18th hole which is a par five. So they decided that today, we should play from the black tees for just this hole. And off we went! It was a long hole, with out of bounds on the left and the driving range on the right (and balls kept coming through the mesh fence, a lot of them!) and I managed to get in my only sandtrap of the day but by the end, I was pretty happy that we all shot only two over on the hole!
Afterwards, I gave each of the guys one of my cards, and told them to keep me in mind for future foursomes, and off I went. Living through, and enjoying, my first official California round of golf, and my first official networking meeting on the course!
Monday, March 05, 2012
Angela's all official now!
Yep, that's right, she's all official now folks.
Presenting Angela Knapp, National Board Certified Teacher!
See, there are still awesome teachers out there! Congrats again, Angela!!! So proud of you!!!
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